Tag Archives: Patrick Deeley

‘God might…’ he wrote, by way of ending his letterfrom the trenches, but any thought he heldof saying more to his friend, your grandfather,stopped, the shell upsetting everythingin his vicinity, the pages blown free by the blast,and with them his ‘Thanks for the razor,it is a good one’; his ‘Sorry to hear about Tony,such things will happen’ – war or deathnot otherwise referenced; his ‘I have said all untilthe next time’ left hanging as he is tossedinto the air, a few drops of his blood splashed againstthe floating white space he must have lookedhard at for a moment before decidingto settle on the beginning of a hope or a blessing.

Patrick Deeley is a former primary school teacher and principal. His poems have been widely published and translated. Groundswell: New and Selected is the latest of his six collections with Dedalus Press. His memoir, The Hurley Maker’s Son, appeared recently from Transworld.